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Online Retailers Pursue Teenagers

MERCHANTS have long believed that it is crucial to reach consumers early. But it has taken online retailers a long time to get wise to teenagers.

Rather than acting as if young people operate online in a manner that is even close to the way adults operate, companies like Macy's, Alloy and others are approaching teenagers in a way that, they hope, reflects the shifting and sometimes contradictory signals of this group.

"Teens are so demanding of 'what's in it for me,' that unless the site offers everything they want, they'll reject it," said Jane Buckingham, president of the Intelligence Group, a consulting company in New York owned by the Creative Artists Agency. "So the more they can read about trends, see makeovers, know what's cool and then buy it, the better."

To that end, Macy's, a unit of Federated Department Stores, recently introduced a test version of a site specifically for teenage girls, ThisIt (a condensed version of This Is It), which is a radical departure from the tame pages of Macy's.com.

The site, at www.thisit.com, defies traditional Web site design in that it features no navigation bars or even conventional category listings. Instead, visitors are greeted with a depiction of Times Square, with nine numbered billboards and a blimp. If a visitor is lucky, or conditioned, enough to drag the mouse cursor over a number, a small preview screen appears and describes that section's contents.

Among other things, the site has advice on trends, music downloads and video clips, and a series of photo layouts designed by the editors of Teen Vogue featuring models wearing Macy's merchandise. One layout, called "Bohemian Rhapsody" after the song by Queen, features jeans, a sweater and a camisole. When visitors click the "buy now" button, they are taken to a page on the Juniors/ThisIt section of Macy's.com, where those items are shown along with prices and color options.

According to Kent Anderson, who oversees the online division of Macy's, the site is "mostly designed to be about their lifestyle and communicating with them, versus a hard sell like 'here's the merchandise, it's on sale."'

Mr. Anderson said the site was not necessarily designed to accelerate online sales. "Our focus is more to drive customers to the stores," he said. "There's a certain social aspect to going to the mall or town center, and we'd like the younger customers to think of Macy's as a destination. And as they grow up, we'd like them to continue to think about Macy's for themselves, their homes and their own children."

Given the size of the current teenage market -- and how much teenagers will be able to spend once they have their own credit cards -- merchants are willing to try just about anything. According to Teenage Research Unlimited, a consultancy in Northbrook, Ill., the population of teenagers will reach about 34 million within the next five years, up from about 30 million in 1997 and about 33.5 million at present.

According to a study released late last year by Teenage Research Unlimited, about 49 percent of adolescent boys have bought something online, versus 41 percent of teenage girls. Fifty-four percent of 16- and 17-year-olds have shopped online.

"Sixteen seems to be the magic number online," said Rob Callender, the trends director at Teenage Research Unlimited. "They can pilot around a car, which increases the amount they can earn. And when parents see them handle these responsibilities, they feel better about giving them a credit card for an online purchase."

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Teenage boys buy more goods online, Mr. Callender said, because the items they are interested in -- like videos, music and tech gizmos -- are easier to evaluate online than the sweaters, shoes and other items that are high on teenage girls' online shopping lists. "Also, shopping is more a social occasion for girls," he said. "But we are seeing girls becoming more comfortable with buying clothes online."

Analysts and online executives said that the increasing use of high-speed connections by residential Internet users has boosted the teenage market. Faster connections give Web sites license to offer more multimedia features, which can retain adolescents' attention without frustrating other visitors.

EBay is the notable exception to the rule that teenagers crave gilt and flash from their Web sites. The site is by far the most popular online shopping destination for teenagers. According to comScore Media Metrix, an Internet consultancy, eBay had nearly 5 million visitors between the ages of 12 and 17 in January, compared with about 3 million for Amazon, which ranked second.

"But there's built-in competition involved with eBay," said Mr. Callender of Teenage Research Unlimited. "So it's almost entertainment as well as shopping."

Nike, Alloy and Abercrombie & Fitch's site for teenagers, HollisterCo.com, among others, include heavy doses of video or interactive features meant to keep teenagers entertained. Knowing which videos to show, which tunes to play and which products to sell, though, remains as tricky as ever.

Indeed, for some retailers, divining the tastes of teenagers is a business unto itself. Take, for instance, Alloy Media and Marketing, which is based in New York. The company started as a clothing retailer focused on selling to teenage girls through the Internet and catalogs, but in the late 1990's began more aggressively soliciting customer feedback on its primary retail Web site, Alloy.com.

After gathering feedback through polls and message boards, the company sharpened its merchandising approach and buying strategies, according to Samantha Skey, Alloy's senior vice president of strategic marketing.

"We can feel trends emerging through that kind of discourse, and we can stock products accordingly," Ms. Skey said. "We don't want to be so edgy that we're starting fashion trends, but we want to be right there at the moment a trend hits."

That intelligence quickly led the company to offer marketing consulting services to outside companies -- a business that now includes divisions like 360 Youth, among others. Alloy's media and marketing division accounts for nearly half of the company's sales, which, Alloy said, reached about $400 million last year.

Alloy may soon reward its media and marketing division for its fast progress. Ms. Skey said the company could split its marketing and retail divisions into separate corporate entities.